The Owl and the Seductress
by ukiyox
Summary: Atsuki hates men and femme fatales are her heroes. Bokuto is a simpleton, who is great at volleyball but not so great at math-hence his failure on the maths final. Their maths sensei requests Atsuki to tutor Bokuto for his supplementary final, Atsuki agrees, believing her greatest challenge has been met. Seductress meets Owl.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: The beginning**

" **How to be a heartbreaker**

 **Boys they like the look of danger**

 **We'll get him falling for a stranger, a player**

 **Singing I lo-lo-love you**

 **At least I think I do!"**

 _ **Heartbreaker**_ **, Mariana and The Diamonds (2012)**

 **A.N:** All rights reserved to Haruichi Furudat.

I was inspired by the poem, _The Owl and the Pussycat_ in naming this story- but it doesn't have anything to do with the poem (lololol).

* * *

Atsuki Oshiro hated men. It was not because she was strongly opposed to the patriarchy that existed in contemporary society-which if you're wondering, she is-but because a man broke her mother's heart and robbed her of her childhood. This vile, abomination (aka man) was her clumsy, goofy father who died because of his clumsy, goofiness.

Everything was a joke to him, no, he made everything a joke. He believed life was meant to be enjoyed and in order to do such you had to do crazy, risky (or risqué like he called it because he thought it made him sound fancy) things. Her mother would always laugh, a real, polaroid worthy laugh, eyes half closed, nose scrunched up, and very prominent and cute dimples. Now her smile was tight, like her mouth had been sewn shut and someone was pulling the thread up, and her eyes were lifeless, though in fairness the heavy dosage of antidepressants she was taking, probably had a had big part in the lifelessness in her eyes.

She hated looking at her mother. Her mother embedded in her the belief that women were strong, powerful and beautiful yet what she had succumb to was the exact opposite, making her mother a hypocrite. But, she could never hate her mother, because her father caused her to be like this.

Watching her mother was not easy. Some days were alright, her mother would get up, wash all the clothes in cheap, lemon scented detergent and then hang them to dry, always quoting her father,

"Home is where you hang clean laundry that has been washed with the cheapest detergent!"

Atsuki didn't see it like that. She felt that her father just said that lame line to get her mother to do the laundry and other household chores, so he could have more time to be stupid. On these said days are mother would tell funny stories of her father, and it drove Atsuki insane, she could not understand how someone could be so nonsensically in love with someone who was no longer here. However, she would endure recitations of her father's lame quotes and professions of love for him any day, if that meant her mother was on her feet and agile, because on bad days her mother could not get out bed. Nothing was scarier than watching someone who was supposed to be your guardian, who was _alive_ , behave like they were dead.

How could her father be so selfish? How could he do this her mother, to _her_?

* * *

Atsuki carefully washed off the conditioner from her ebony locks, taking pieces of her hair at a time, and bringing it under the cold water, and then repeating the same process with another section of hair. Cold water made her hair very shiny, and shiny was attractive.

Once she was done rinsing off the conditioner from her hair, she stood under the water for a few more minutes. Cold water also closed pores, it made her skin stay smooth and clear. She was not blessed with her mothers creamy, porcelain skin, she got her fathers olive coloured skin instead. Even though she hated the colour of her skin, she found it more productive to work on making it glow than to spend time loathing it or using harmful chemicals to lighten it.

She was completely numb to the coldness of the water. Years of showering only in cold water built up her tolerance of it, and clear skin and shiny hair were proof of it.

"beep beep beep beep beep beep beep" Her phone's timer went off.

Signalling to her that shower time was over and it was now time to dry off and get her makeup on. The dark haired girl always timed herself because she hated being late. She wrapped a thick, white towel around her slender frame and then proceeded to squeeze out-trying to be as gentle as she could- the water from her hair. Her hair was naturally curly, very curly and ugly like her fathers had been, but with some effort and the right products, she made it work. She tied her hair up in bun, and then began to dry her body, she followed up with applying vanilla scented body lotion, her trademark, a light moisturizer on her face and then put on her uniform.

Atsuki applied a liberal amount of mousse in her hair and played around with it, when she was satisfied she started blow-drying her hair, stopping here and there to scrunch it. She dried her hair completely, rookie mistake was not to do so because given a little humidity and one would look like an _Oba-san_. She applied some sunscreen, Atsuki learned a long time ago from a beautiful, older girl at the mall that the molecules in sunscreen were bigger than the ones in most moisturizers so if one applied them at the same time they would not receive the full benefits from the moisturizer. So she always waited until she was done her hair before she applied sunscreen. Then she lightly dusted powder foundation, focusing underneath her eyes, and a peachy blush that complimented her tanned skin. She skillfully curled her eyelashes, and applied a modest amount of mascara, working from the top of the eyelash down- it made one's lashes look longer and fuller. Once she was done with that she applied a nude lipstick and set her makeup. She gave herself one final look in the mirror, whilst thinking of a conversation she once had with her mother.

Atsuki's mother once asked, on a good day, why Atsuki hated men so much. Her mother's mother Miki, who had been visiting at time, had put down her mug of green tea and shook her head, saying,

"Atsuki is completely justified in her hate. Men are all so stupid. They are just science experiments!"

Atsuki had fist pumped in agreement. She loved her grandmother Miki. Miki's husband (Atsuki's grandfather, who she refused to have any relationship with) had divorced her a decade ago for a woman, 30 years younger. Miki knew how deceitful and pure evil men were. Her mother on the other hand, could not see that the root cause to her depression was her late husband.

That same day her mother came up to her privately, probably in fear that Miki would answer for Atsuki, and asked,

"Okay, you hate men, why decorate yourself so much?"

Atsuki had smiled sweetly, and replied ambiguously,

"Because it feels good, to take care of myself, and take control of my life."

She wasn't lying then, it did make her feel good, but not in the way her mother probably had comprehended (if she even dissected or thought about farther, what Atsuki had said). It made her feel good because boys wanted _her_ , but they would never get her. She thrived off making guys think they had a chance with her, it was so damn easy. She would do things, little things like, slightly biting her lip, or twirling her hair when she talked to them, subtly and it would easily turn them on. If she repeated several of these actions with a certain guy, he would likely think that she liked him and then would build the courage to ask her out. Then, depending on her mood or the state her mother was in that day, she would either turn him down viscously, and cruelly, or she'd agree to go out with him, only to dump him a little while later, offering no reason. One could call her actions vindictive and evil, she called them payback.

 **X**

Reaching the gates of Fukurodani academy, she tried remembering when her hate for men manifested into leading guys on and then breaking their hearts. At first she had wanted nothing to do with them, she would avoid anyone that was a male- even if that meant refusing to see the doctor when she was sick because he was a male. But then as she got older, she realized how impractical that was. So she stopped avoiding them, and become almost indifferent to them. Being indifferent definitely conserved a lot of energy, and was much more practical-but she was unsatisfied. She wanted something more.

Then, just a few days after her 13th birthday she read this book, which for being a life changing book to her, she oddly didn't remember the title. However, she did remember the main female, and how her personality had made her feel. The main girl was a femme fatale and she was so _badass_. She had encompassed everything her mother had told her about women, but even better, she destroyed men.

Atsuki started practicing then. She was clumsy at first, like a baby horse learning how to walk, but she got better and better with practice. She learned how to apply her lipstick, and how to pick the right colour for her colouring. She learned how to walk to get attention, and how to talk, slowly but sweetly with a hint of sultriness. It took time, a lot of time, and garnered laughs from older children and adults but she did master it, and all by herself. The same people who laughed at her, would now watch in awe as she walked by. She was a women after all, and women were winners.

Atsuki was in-front of her desk now, she opened her bag and neatly put away her notebooks in her desk and then hung her bag on the side of her desk. She was just about to sit down when she realized that her sensei for mathematics-a rather tall woman, with a blunt pixie cut- and a taller odd looking guy from her class, were periodically looking at her through the class door's window. The woman would say something, then the odd looking guy-whose name was at the tip of her tongue- would look at her, and then the said odd looking guy would say something and the woman would shrug and look back at her. Atsuki was getting a very, _very_ bad feeling about this.

She wasn't given time to ruminate about this feeling as the school bell rang abruptly and her homeroom teacher walked in, giving a questionable gaze to strange looking guy and the maths sensei. The weird looking guy, whose name, she was sure of, started with a B subsequently followed their homeroom teacher. His head was slightly down but his gaze was still on her. All through out roll call, and the first period, Japanese literature, she felt him staring at her. She was tempted to turn around, but she didn't want to make things anymore awkward. The literature teacher finished, they all got up and ritually bowed.

Quickly after, the Biology sensei walked in. He was a quick man, and so, his lessons normally were done earlier then most teachers, but today the lesson seemed to drag on. He seemed to be trudging through molasses as he taught. All through out his lesson as well, she felt the alien boy's gaze.

 _Why can't I remember his name?_ She questioned herself.

It was in the exchange between their second period biology teacher and third period English teacher, that she remembered his name.

 _Bokuto_

She remembered his name because last week, after the maths final the class representative, Goto-san, and her were discussing the answer to one of the questions. Atsuki had gotten, f'(x)= (x^2e^x-e^2x-e^x-1)/ (x+e^x)^2, but Goto-san had gotten a + 1 at the end of the dividend instead of the -1. They had been passively-aggressively arguing about which answer was correct, when the odd boy, Bokuto, yelped,

"NANNNIII? I got four!?"

She started to relax more after remembering his name, because he was clearly one of the stupidest boys she had ever encountered and thus he probably was gazing at her for a lame, not-worth-stressing-over reason. Atsuki relaxed her shoulders, and found it much easier to focus on the lesson at hand.

Atsuki may have spoken too soon, because as soon as the math sensei walked in, his glare became very intense, like an owl that located a field mouse and was about to go into the kill. She could feel goose bumps on her arms, and a bead of sweat on her forehead.

 _Don't worry, Don't worry, remember he's just lab experiment-just like the other guys. PAY attention to the lesson._ Atsuki mentally commanded herself.

Normally her pep talks to herself worked, her physical appearance and stellar grades were evident of it, but Bokuta was something else. A different kind of lab experiment, a different kind of stupid.

Atsuki coulden't bare it anymore. She whipped her head around, and screeched-louder than she intended it to be,

"WHAT?"

It was only after screaming that she realized that, 1) because Bokuta sat a few seat to the left of her, and 2) because he never once spoke during the four morning periods, no one in the class other than her, knew he had been continually staring at her. So basically everyone in her class thought she had finally lost her marbles.

Bokuta's eyes were wide open, and innocent looking—angering her more.

 _How COULD he be so oblivious to how uncomfortable he's made me feel?_ She thought, angrily.

"Oshiro-san…?" Her teacher asked tentatively.

"Errr...Hai?" Atsuki said, turning around to face her teacher, cheeks pink with embarrassment.

"Is something the matter?" Her teacher replied.

"Erm..yes…no, no, I thought I saw something… erm felt something…carry on…pls," she pleaded.

Her teacher looked at her questionably, but abided by her request as she was the top student and such a notion was out of the ordinary for her. She went back to the world of functions and derivatives. Atsuki could feel her classmates continually gawking at her through out the remaining lesson, and quietly whispering. She bit her lip hard, making it bleed slightly.

Atsuki was not going to pay attention to them, she worked so hard for this image, no one, especially a male, would take it away from her.

 **X**

After the pixie hair sensei finished, concluding morning lessons and initiating the beginning of lunch break, Atsuki bolted for the bathroom with her bag in hand. She planned to return to the class in 15 minutes or so, enough time for most of her classmates to take their lunches somewhere outside, or to get their wallets and go line up in the lunch line. She figured returning to the classroom when it was reasonably empty would be better for damage control, less people to ask her questions about the morning and when the rest of the class would return, their bellies would be full from food and the morning's fiasco forgotten, her cool girl image would be restored- or she hoped it would.

As soon as she reached the bathroom, she washed her hand in cold water, and then splashed some on her face thanking the Lord for setting spray. Then she fished out a ponytail from her bag, and loosely tied her hair away from her face, trying to figure out what the hell just happened and the successfulness of her plan. Atsuki knew she was being naïve, thinking food could make people forget a relatively, chill girl, freaking out in class but it was too nerve-wrecking to think otherwise.

She walked around the bathroom, and then locked herself in one stall- she did not need some girl to see her pacing the bathroom, no need to add on the crazy rumours- and promptly put down the toilet seat and sat down. She furiously rubbed her temples, and cursed the owl eyed boy simultaneously.

Atsuki waited until she felt it had been 15 minutes or so and then unlocked the bathroom door and washed her hands again. Then she slowly treaded her way back to class, avoiding any potential eye contact with anyone. Suddenly, her maths sensei called to her,

"Oi, Atsuki-san!"

"Hai!" She replied respectfully.

"Are you alright? I have never seen you freak out like that before? Was it because of Bokuto pestering you about tutoring him?" The sensei questioned.

 _Tutor? Me? Him?_ Atsuki thought, completely horrified.

"Uhh yes," Atsuki hesitantly replied, desperate to not let her perfect mask fall.

Her sensei shook her head dismissively,

"That boy…he failed his math final last week and I told him he needs to get at least an 80 on the supplementary class's final this coming Saturday or else he won't be able to join his team in the preliminaries for nationals," she explained.

Pausing to place her thumb and index finger on either side of her temples, gently pressing in, she continued,

"Normally, I always check with the student that will tutor, first to make sure they're okay with committing the time and effort to tutor another student, but this time Bokuto-kun approached, well begged me to exempt him from the make-ups. Of course I said no but he was very earnest about improving and open to alternatives, provided that he is able to participate in the spring nationals. So I offered to get him a tutor for this week—until Saturday to prepare him for the exam."

"Atsuki-san, he seems to hold a high position as the ace of the team and we _are_ a powerhouse school, if you can give him some of your time so he can pass I'd really appreciate it." Misuno-sensei added, while stepping forward and placing a hand on Atsuki's right shoulder.

"The decision is entirely up to you, but I need to find him someone else if you are unable to do it, I promised him after all so, what do you say Atsuki-san?" She finished, giving a soft, but encouraging smile.

Atsuki bit her lip as she felt a strong inward sense of anger—how did a man get her beautiful sensei to ask something like this from her? How did he move her so much to, make such a heavy promise? She got even angrier as she realized that although at first glance Bokuta seemed like a simpleton with a lot of screws lose, he was actually a very manipulative and calculative man…

 _What is this anomaly known as bokuto-san?_ Atsuki thought.

Atsuki was a part of the literature club on campus, club activities were to show up and read whenever one wanted, meaning she definitely had the time to tutor Bokuto. Plus, her beautiful sensei was requesting her, and since saying no would mean her sensei would have to put in work finding someone else in such a short time, she had to to take this job.

"Yes, I can manage Mizuno-sensei…" Atsuki replied dryly.

"Thank you Atsuki-san, that boy isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but I'm confident in you, that's why you're my top choice! I'll let you work out an appropriate schedule with him. Let me know if you two need anything!" Mizuno-sensei replied, cheerfully.

She then winked at Atsuki before she turned away and headed back to the teacher's office. Atsuki shook her head, and gave a long, worthy sigh, and then started walking back to her class.

She almost reached her class room when she came face to face, well face- _her face_ \- and back- _his back_ \- with the aforementioned fake simpleton. He was completely oblivious to her as he kept conversing with his friend, who was slightly shorter than him and had dark hair like hers.

"Neh, Akaashii, can't you help me out here?" Bokuto pleaded.

Unlike Bokuto, his friend seemed to not only notice her, but also register who she was within milliseconds.

"Bokuto-san…" Akaashi tried warning him.

"No, Akaashi, you have to back me up sometimes! This girl is so weird! She can't possibly be that good at math, YOU have to tutor me- or else I won't be able to play in the preliminaries! What's a team without its ace?" Bokuto exclaimed.

"Bokuto-san if you look behin-" Akaashi tried again.

"NO, Akaashi you have to believe me, she was so strange, and like yelled 'WHAT' for no reason, she's a mean girl! I don't want a mean girl tutoring me!" Bokuto whined, with out stretched hands, eyes wide.

"Bokuto, I don't have time to learn upper year math and teach it, while simultaneously train-but that's not important right now because behind you-" Aakashi hastily tried explaining.

"AKAASHI!" Bokuto continued his whining.

Akaashi, put his hand on his temple, just like her sensei had done moments ago. Bokuto seemed to have this effect on people.

"Bokuto-san, please, behind you." Akaashi stated, tiredly.

Bokuto turned out, looking confused until his eyes made contacts with hers and then he jumped.

"AHH, where did you come from?! What are you!?" Bokuto yelped.

"I'm the weird, mean girl you were just so passionately talking about. Also your new tutor." Atsuki replied, coolly.

 _What did I get myself into?_ She cried internally.

* * *

 **A.N:**

I love Kenma, but wrote about Bokuto. Because I don't think I can do Kenma justice. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this as much I as did writing it. I set the story in Bokuto's second year (or Aakashi's first) because I know Bokuto has failed math before, but because he was able to attend the training camp before the preliminaries for nationals took place I assumed he failed math in his second year. Also I know that this story might sound similar to one I wrote a couple years ago, but I promise it isn't! (I just seem to write about dysfunctional families ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ )


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: A little after the beginning**

" **This boy**

 **This boy**

 **This boy [fade out]"**

 _This boy_ , The beetles

"Nani? You're my tutor?" Bokuto questioned, very fazed.

"I believe, I just said so," Atsuki explained, dryly. Putting her hair behind her ears, she shifted her attention towards Akaashi. He was looking at her, no, analyzing her, seeing if she was really fit to help out his friend.

"ARE YOU sure? I mean, Mizuno-sensei said you were very gifted in math, but in class today—you didn't seem very nice…" Bokuto announced, shifting Atsuki's attention back on him.

"Bokuto-san, she's your best bet right now. Please don't say anything unnecessary," Akaashi sternly scolded his friend, seemingly decided that Atsuki was fit to help his friend. Akaashi turned his gaze back to Atsuki, and added,

"I'm sorry, he's a bit…spirited, but feel free to hit him if you feel appropriate."

"AKAASHI!" Bokuto protested.

Atsuki, raised her eyebrows up slightly, surprised that a junior was giving her permission to do such to his senior. However, she didn't dislike it though, and as far as men went, Akaashi was okay, and bearable. Much more reasonable to deal with than his slightly larger, obnoxious counterpart. The lunch bell rang, signaling the end of lunch.

"I better get back to class," Akaashi said, bowing his head towards her politely, and then turning around and walking towards the first year corridor. Definitely bearable, Atsuki thought.

"We better get back to our class too," She told Bokuto, who immediately had put his hands up as she started to speak. Atsuki rolled her eyes, saying,

"I'm not going to hurt you. I'm going to help you with math so you can play in your volleyball tournament."

 _At least not now_ she thought wickedly.

"Oh really, you are? Okay that's great!" Bokuto said, right forearm sheepishly behind his head.

"Yes, I believe this is the second time I've confirmed such." Atsuki replied, walking into their class. Today was Monday, so they had chemistry right after lunch, and then P.E. Atsuki walked over to her desk and collected her chemistry notebook, while Bokuto, casually walked behind her.

Atsuki was right when she thought people would forget about her little fiasco earlier that day—as people were not _solely_ looking at her, but rather were gazing at both her and Bokuto, dissecting the situation and wondering if there was something going on between the two.

 _Oh brother_

She didn't like people knowing what guy she was currently talking to, it was better to keep her habits on the down low, better to keep unsuspecting guys unprepared. By having a relationship, no matter how seemingly trivial on the exterior, with a guy to public scrutiny would really sabotage her man harming ways.

Chemistry book in hand, she turned to Bokuto and said quietly, keeping her words clip and to the point—as to not attract more attention to them or to add more to other people's curiosities,

"Meet me after P.E, we can look over you final. I'll assess what you lack in the most, and come up with a suitable plan that will get you the grade you need."

"Okay!" Bokuto said cheerfully, completely oblivious to the stares people were giving him. Or maybe he was just used to them, as Atsuki had a feeling that he was the type of guy who liked having people look at him, praise him—liked being validated by others.

The girl studied his face for a brief moment, deciding that he wasn't ugly but he wasn't cute either. He just looked…different, a bit tanner than the other guys in her class, taller, and more muscular—showing just how much he trained for volleyball. He was also, definitely smarter, and more evil than most boys in her class as he had easily manipulated Mizuno-sensei and was able to pull off a goofy, and dorky façade. Evil _and_ good at acting. He would be her hardest challenge yet.

Her classmates started shuffling out of the class and towards the chemistry labs, she joined in passively. Bokuto maintained his proximity with her but was currently talking to another classmate. Atsuki began rolling ideas in her head. She always picked the guy she wanted to seduce, not the other way around. She always chose easy targets—guys who were easy to read and play around with, ones who wore they heart on their sleeves _not_ guys who played the persona of someone stupid.

 _Wait_ Atsuki thought, steps halting as she came to a complete pause before the mouth of the hallway.

 _If he's really smart, how did he manage to fail math?_

Atsuki looked over at Bokuto, who was ahead of her and no longer in close proximity. He was still engaged in his conversation, hands wild as he animatedly talked about some inane topic.

 _Did he fail math purposely?_ No, that couldn't be the case as he seemed to generally like volleyball, and so he wouldn't fail deliberately. It had to be because he wasn't prepared for it, or truly didn't understand it. So then, had she pinned him wrong? Was he not smart? But did that then, make Mizuno-sensei really stupid as she was fooled by someone who was not intelligent? No, she refused to believe a woman, especially one with the caliber of her sensei would be defeated by a dimwit. So he had to be smart.

 _I mean_ she ruminated,

 _Intelligence isn't black and white right? Isn't there supposedly 7 different ways to operationalize intelligence…or was it 8? Does it even matter?! The point is that intelligence is not restricted to one domain, so even if he isn't successful in a certain area it means nothing in another domain…so it doesn't make sense for me to call him stupid…on an overall level that is…_

Atsuki could feel a headache coming, this boy was so hard to read. She watched Bokuto trot into the chemistry lab, and watched how the small, chemistry sensei hurriedly entered after him. Seeing her sensei rapidly run into class reminded her that she too, should get to class—she really hated being late.

X

Atsuki wiped of the sweat from her face with an oil blotting sheet. She then spritzed some Tom Ford, _Tobacco Vanille_ perfume on her neck, and then on her wrist, pressing her wrists gently together—these were supposedly the best areas to apply perfume. She neatly tucked the bottle of perfume in her gym bag, and untied her hair, letting the curls, now very loose, fall. The girl didn't hate gym, but wasn't fond of playing a team sport or doing any other kind of physical activity with other people because the cacophony of chatter and gym teacher shouting orders made it hard to focus. Not to mention, the greasy, sweaty boys ogling the girls. Disgusting.

She grabbed her bag and trudged back to class, taking her sweet time as the indoor shoes she was wearing was pressing into her heel very tightly, duly noting to get another pair of shoes over the weekend. The pace of her walk was giving her ample time to prepare for her meeting with Bokuto. Her initial step, after picking a target, normally would be to approach the guy sweetly, flashing a coy smile, and being kind—but she knew that wouldn't work on Bokuto because he would likely see through her act as he was intelligent. Or he would question why she was talking so gently, and girly, when she had earlier been more straightforward, and to the point.

So this meant that she couldn't partake in her usual overt measures. She had to try more covert ones, and that excited her and made her nervous at the same. Excited, because it was always fun to try new things, but nervous because a lot could go wrong the first time one tried something.

"Oshiro-san!" A sweet voice came from behind Atsuki, making her stop and turn to see who it belonged too.

Shirofuku, Yukie came up to her, small, sincere smile plastered on her lips. Atsuki wasn't very well acquainted with Yukie, and she only really knew two things about her, she managed the boy's volleyball team and she had a ferocious appetite—there was a rumor that she could eat three rice balls at once. As see took care of the volleyball team, Atsuki had a pretty good idea what Yukie wanted to talk about.

"Word of mouth is that you're tutoring Bokuto-san?" She questioned, but Atsuki knew that despite that innocent smile that Yukie was displaying, Yukie was sharp, and wise. She wasn't asking Atsuki if she was tutoring Bokuto, she was confirming.

"Hello, Shirofuko-san. Yeah, I was asked earlier today by Mizuno-sensei to do so…I hope I can help him the grade he needs to pass,"

"I see, well I know you'll do a great job...though I must warn you—she paused, to look at the hall window—it's supposed to rain pretty hard later tonight, so you should probably finish up before then," Yukie said elusively.

"I don't think I'll be staying that late, haha…but I'll definitely make note of it,"

"Well good luck then," Yukie said, she then waved goodbye, and after that disappeared into her homeroom. Atsuki was slightly bemused, as their encounter was very short and she didn't see why Yukie needed to warn her about impeding weather conditions as though Atsuki kept a low profile, a well known fact about her was that she was _always_ prepared. She religiously checked the weather every morning, and night—but nonetheless it was very sweet, and caring of Yukie to warn her.

When she got into her classroom she looked around for Bokuto. A few students were dispersed around the class, excitedly chatting about evening plans. She noticed him, leaning against his desk, inhaling a sub with meatballs, cheese, lettuce—the whole works. She stared in amazement, she didn't know it was humanly possible to fit that big of a sub in one's mouth. If the rumor about Yukie was true—being able to eat three rice balls at once—then Bokuto and her would make a great pair.

Once noticing Atsuki, Bokuto inaudibly called out, disgusting the remaining classmates in class,

"OSsubitmasmfmfsdfjq!"

"What…?" Atsuki replied, very confused. Was that even Japanese? It sounded Russian.

Bokuto chewed quickly, took a sip of his Pocari Sweat which was adjacent to him, and then said,

"Oshiro-san, want to go somewhere to eat? I like the atmosphere of fast-food environments for studying,"

"But you're already eating…?"

"Ohhh, this? No, no it's just a snack after P.E!"

 _How much did this boy eat?_

"Okay…we can if you want too…any places in mind? Will a coffee shop do? Also, do you have your final with you?" She replied, slightly annoyed. She didn't want to be seen with him outside of school, but Atsuki wasn't up for debating, and so would comply with his request.

"Coffee? Maybe after…but let's get burgers first! Well, first I have to find my final—stopping to rummage through his untidy desk—so that would mean get burgers second haha, and then coffee third," He said cheerfully.

 _What?_ Atsuki took a few moments to decipher what he meant, while Bokuto carried on foraging through his desk, not noticing her puzzlement.

"Um, I don't think we'll have time for burgers and coffee, because I don't think you need more than an hour, two hours tops—" Atsuki began to say, but was interrupted by Bokuto yelling,

"TADA!" He proudly stood in-front of her, brandishing a crumpled white booklet.

"It only took me like 30 seconds! Am I amazing or what?" Atsuki heeded no attention to his question, as right, smack in the middle of the final Bokuto begrimed, in red, crisp letters was,

 _21/100_

Twenty-freaking-one out of one-freaking-hundred. Not even close to the passing grade, which was 40 % (or 40/100). Atsuki took back what she had said moments ago,

"Actually, yes, we'll get burgers second—well now first because you found the paper, and then coffee,"

 **X**

Atsuki rubbed her temples as gently as she could, but the pain would not go away. She closed her eyes tightly, hoping that the force from her eyes would somehow take away or at—least dull the throbbing sensation from her head. It was no use, other than the slightly blurry vision she got when she opened her eyes, her headache was still there, in full swing. Bokuto was also there, sipping his iced coffee—large, with milk, and spoonful's of sugar—her small cup of espresso looked very lacking in comparison.

They had spent a good hour at Wcdonalds, looking over his final, Bokuto constantly munching on his Big Wac and fries, Atsuki periodically nibbling her grilled cheese sandwich. When she had finished assessing his weaknesses—which was pretty much everything, they both decided that to save time they would just order coffee from here, lots and lots of coffee.

It was supposed to be easy. She was supposed to find a few mistakes here and there, and then plan out a schedule with him—what the _hell_ made her think this boy was smart? She took back what she earlier thought about intelligence being fluid, and able to manifest in different ways—no way could some be so smart in one thing, but suck rat's ss on another… _HOW?_ He clearly didn't fool Mizuno-sensei, no, she _pitied_ him and that's why she asked Atsuki. Her analyzing skills were seriously lacking, or maybe she was softening up to men, as she clearly gave Bokuto too much credence.

She groaned internally. She was so excited albeit a little nervous, to try someone new, and different. In all fairness Bokuto was different, asnever in her life had she seen so many red X's on a test paper, but not the kind she was hoping to experiment with.

Bokuto was currently slurping down his iced coffee, intently staring at the questions she had wrote out for him, trying to figure out how to solve them. All his basics were askew; his understanding of the basic principles of functions were wonky, and filled with holes, large holes. For an example, the boy thought that the log function could accept negative numbers. She had then backtracked, and started taking baby steps. First she had written out neatly what the log function was, and what it could accept in it's range. Then she designed simple calculations for him with log, assessing if Bokuto was soaking in what she was teaching, when she felt he did satisfactorily she showed him to do derivatives with log in it.

Just like she had done with the simple calculations, Atsuki made questions about it, however they were slightly given the topic was more complex than the preceding one. She was now waiting for him to try and solve them. There was no point of tutoring someone if you didn't test their understanding periodically through the session.

Atsuki lost count of the amount of times she internally cursed herself. How did she read him so wrong? How could someone make so many mistakes?

The worst—and most confusing—thing about his final was that he got the hardest question, worth a whooping 20 marks, fully correct. According to Bokuto, it was completely by chance and he had no idea what he was doing but because, yahknow, he was 'the best', he got perfect on it. That angered Atsuki, if it wasn't for the negative she accidently dropped in that question, she would have received a perfect on the final. She worked so hard for her grades, and to see someone do better on a hard question like that, out of pure luck, made her very frustrated. She knew her frustration for Bokuto for that specific question wasn't warranted because she still did a lot better on the final, but she still felt frustrated.

It had been a good 20 minutes or so since she gave him the next set of question, but the owl-like boy was still stationary. He was staring at the white page, with her neat handwriting, still undecided on how to go about on the questions.

Atsuki looked around the room, wanting something to distract her from the predicament she was in. There was nothing interesting inside the shop. There was a couple, probably in middle school given by their puppy dog love vibe, sitting in the far left corner. In the middle of the couple, and Atsuki and Bokuto, was a grandmother and her grandson. It seemed like anyone else who came in wanted take-out. Realizing that the inside of WcDonald's was not going to get interesting by her surveying it, she looked out the large, slightly dirty windows.

No rain. The sun was setting and it was encompassing the sidewalks with a warm, beautiful, orange glow. If the sun was setting it had to be at close to 20:00, meaning she should really get a move on. Her mother never made dinner, and if it wasn't for Atsuki, probably wouldn't eat anything and go straight to bed, but Atsuki made sure to get home and make food for her.

Atsuki grabbed her phone, which was embedded in a sleek, black case and checked the time,

 _19:45_

she was right, it was getting close to 20:00.

"Oshiro-san!" Bokuto called out to her, reverting her attention back onto him.

Embarrassed for losing focus, Atsuki hastily replied,

"Yes?"

"I think I'll be good for now, you should probably go home now because it's getting darker and it's supposed to rain!"

What was it with people notifying her about the weather? Did they assume that she didn't check the weather?

"Yeah, I _know_ —but it doesn't seem like it'll rain. I can quickly go over one more concept, and then we can meet again tomorrow morning? Or does after school work better?"

"No, no—I think I got it now. You should really get a move on, even if it doesn't rain it'll definitely get dark soon" Bokuto ventured, but when seeing Atsuki looking at his empty sheet devoid of any attempts of problem solving, he laughed sheepishly,

"…well, I mean—I will get it shortly! But yes, tomorrow morning will be good!"

Atsuki thought over his reply for a few brief moments. Why did he care if she walked alone in the dark?

"Welllll, if you insist—Atuski said, pausing to get up—I guess I'll be on my way," She picked up her bag, and her empty cup that she planned to throw out when she noticed his cellphone, face down and parallel to his empty plate. He hadn't touched it once, surprising Atsuki, he could really focus when he wanted to. She took out her own phone, and asked him,

"What's your mail address? We should exchange our addresses so we can decide on more meeting times," this was a first for Atsuki. She had never once, in her short 17 years of life, asked a guy for his email—it was _always_ the other way around.

"Oh yeah, sure! Good idea!" Bokuto said, suddenly remembering that he had a cellphone and it was very useful when people wanted to communicate each other instantaneously.

They exchanged their mail addresses, and Atsuki give a quick nod as a farewell. She tossed out her empty cup, and walked into the warm glow of the evening. Looking back only once, to see Bokuto not gazing at her—again another first for Atsuki— but at the sheets of paper in front of him. She waited to see if he would look up—but he didn't. He just stayed in that position, eyes wide, fully focused. Atsuki shivered, she didn't know he could make such a face. Finally, he grabbed his mechanical pencil and began writing. She left then, feeling like it was an appropriate time to do so.

She felt droplets on her head, and looked up to see dark, stormy clouds. Just how long had she been staring at Bokuto? It had been warm moments ago…Sighing she quickly ran to the nearest train station, barely missing the storm. She thought over today, again, and again in her head, only making her headache more vigorous.

As soon as she got home she went to their medicine cabinet and took some Ibuprofen. Then she checked up on her mom, who was passed out in her room, empty tablet packages on the floor of her room, used tissues spread out about. Atsuki gently nudged her mom awake. Her mom woke up but didn't say anything, she knew resisting Atsuki when it came to food didn't work.

"How long?" Her mother asked tiredly.

"20 minutes, I promise. Stay awake for 20 minutes and I'll bring you something warm and then you can go back to bed and sleep for as long as you want." Atsuki said sincerely.

"mhmmm," her mom hummed.

Atsuki went back to the kitchen and starting reheating some soup she had in the fridge from the morning. While the soup was reheating, she quickly washed some rice into the rice cooker. When the rice was ready, she added some eggs, and whatever vegetables she could find in the fridge to it. Adding a little bit of soya sauce, salt and pepper, she gave the rice a good mix.

She took out two bowl, and diligently poured soup into one and the egg fried rice in the other. After that she grabbed a tall glass, and filled it with lukewarm water. She put all the items in a tray and headed back to her mom's room. Her mom, had her head propped up against her headboard, eyes closed. She sighed when she saw Atsuki saying,

"I don't know why you're so uptight with me eating regularly…You know your appetite diminishes as you age…"

"Hai, Hai," Atsuki retorted, gently placing the tray in-front of her. Her mom played around with the rice with her chopstick for a bit, but when seeing Atsuki's tired expression, she began eating it.

Atsuki started picked up the dirty tissues, and tablet packages from the floor. It was always best to clean mess right away. Her mother didn't pay attention to Atsuki, or even thank her, but Atsuki didn't mind. Once she was done with, she headed to her room and changed out of her uniform. She needed to wash off her makeup, but she didn't have energy.

It was only later that night when she had willed herself to wash off her makeup, and brush her teeth that she realized, she never once thought about seducing Bokuto when she was tutoring him. For the first time in her life, she sat with a guy, for a very, very long time and didn't think anything negative about men. She was annoyed with him, and tired, and so mad, that she understood him wrong…but she didn't hate the time spent with him.

 _ **A.N**_ _I'm sitting at a coffee shop right now. This is so weird to me, because I don't normally write stories at coffee shops—usually I cry over school and enjoy donuts haha._

 _Few things to point out:_

 _-I used WcDonalds instead of McDonald's (pls tell me you guys get why!)_

 _-Yukie can eat three rice balls in the manga and four in the anime, I went with the manga version because it's the truest version of the story to me_

 _-I'm sorry if my tone seems all over the place—very novice at writing_

 _-lastly, thank you so, so much for reading this!_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: A little more after then the beginning**

Alors on danse

Alors on danse

Alors on…

 _Alors on danse_ by _Stromae_ (2010)

 _ **A.N:**_ _As all ways, thank you for reading._

As the week went on Atsuki and Bokuto fell into a rather peaceful, and well-paced rhythm. Mornings were spent going over new topics—well technically old ones as they had been covered in class already, but new in the sense as being reviewed for the first time—then in the evenings she would quiz him on the what she had taught him earlier.

Atsuki realized that he wasn't stupid, but he couldn't focus on more than one thing at a time. This weakness of his was most evident when the one thing he was focusing on was something of intense interest, like his passion for volleyball, and the rest were things he was not particularly keen on, like schoolwork, especially math school work. After realizing this flaw of his, Atsuki never talked about anything other than the upcoming final when they were studying. It wasn't much of a challenge for her because she wasn't a natural conversationalist—only when she needed to be. She would never admit it, but it was sort of nice taking a break from the strong willed siren she played at school.

These interactions with him were very dichotomous. On one side, she wanted them to go slower—so she could really savor the experience of not having to try—but on the other hand, she really wanted them to end. Really badly. She had no desire to hurt him, and frankly and unbeknownst to her, she was warming up to him. This no desire to hurt him really scared her because this was something unknown to her, something that belonged to a far off territory that she had solemnly swore to never think about—let alone set foot in.

So she locked away these strange feelings somewhere deep in her mind, promising herself to never unlock and dissect them.

At the current moment they were seated at WcDonald's, the same one they were in the first night. They met here in the mornings too, as it was conveniently located near the school and it was surprisingly quiet. The cashiers that worked the morning shifts knew their faces by now, and the cashiers that worked the evenings knew their names on top of their faces, and also what they ordered.

The manager, a large woman with outdated spectacles, began to take pity on the two, and after the second day began regularly slipping an apple pie for Atsuki, and free coffee for Bokuto on their trays. Atsuki tried paying her the first time, but the woman refused. So Atsuki gave in, and accepted it. She wasn't a fan of apples but the kind gesture of the manager made the pies taste better. Bokuto on the other hand, accepted the free coffee happily. He didn't seem to have a problem with people feeling bad for him. He would smile each time, and excitedly say, 'thank you'.

Though she was firm on her resolve to not talk about unrelated topics, that didn't stop Bokuto from doing so, he was quite the conversationalist after all. During their breaks which were no more than 15 minutes—Atsuki would faithfully put a timer on her phone—he would tell her everything about his life. The main topics of conversations were his 'awesomness', Akaashi not appreciating him enough, and volleyball. The first topic bored and annoyed her because it wasn't exactly entertaining to hear someone give themselves a year's worth of compliments. The second topic made her feel bad for Akaashi, the poor guy was practically the mother of Bokuto—if nothing, all he did was care about Bokuto. The last topic was actually, sort of interesting, and she didn't mind hearing about it.

"Uno, I've recently begun to like volleyball," Bokuto said, thoughtfully stirring his ice coffee with a straw, interrupting Atsuki's train of thoughts.

"Oh, why is that?" Atsuki asked, suddenly curious. They had just begun their first break for the night, after two long hours of work—much longer than she would normally do, but with the final approaching swiftly, breaks had to be farther apart.

"Well, I got the hell out my straights blocked," Bokuto whined with his arms crossed, and eyes closed.

"…and that made you like the sport?"

"Yeah, because it's made me begin practicing harder. I'm not at the level I want to be yet, but I know I've gotten a lot better and I can't wait to test them on the people who blocked my straights!" He exclaimed, suddenly standing up with his fist curled in anticipation.

Atsuki looked around the fast food place, embarrassed. Did this boy not understand how to act in public? She felt a sense of relief when she found that the small amount of people in the restaurant were not paying attention to them. Pleading with her eyes for him to sit down she replied,

"I'm not sure I follow. You like volleyball now because you practiced really hard for the nationals? If that's the case, why stick with volleyball for all these years if you didn't like it?"

Bokuto didn't get the clue, and continued to stand.

"Hmmmmm…" He began, finger pensively on his chin as he racked his brain for a reply. Atsuki eyed the timer on the phone, making sure they weren't exceeding their break time.

"Well, it all starts with this guy named Kuroo, whose really jealous of me," Atsuki had the feeling that this wasn't the case, but arched her eyebrows up slightly, encouraging him to continue with his story.

"Like really, really jealous of me," Bokuto continued. Atsuki rolled her eyes, wondering if he would answer her question sometime tonight. He sat down, and looked at her seriously. If he hadn't looked at her with such intensity, she would have been grateful that he finally sat down.

However, his glare made her shiver, and feel something that she couldn't name. _Was he deliberately making her feel so confused?_

Atsuki sat up straight, and drank some more of her black coffee—now cold—as she tried her best to keep her cool. Bokuto remained oblivious to Atsuki's shaky resolve, and took another sip of his coffee.

"I mean it, he's like uber jealous of me—"

"I GET it!" Atsuki interrupted. Her voice was a little louder than she had intended it to be, and much shakier than she wanted it to be. He looked at her confusingly, but before he could ask her if she was alright, she laughed off the intensity of her earlier response,

"Ahahahaha…had too much coffee…um, please go on. How did this jealous guy get you to play volleyball," his eyes remained slightly surprised but he didn't question the validity of her explanation. Instead he dove into story.

X

Unlike other young children that began walking by their first birthday, Kotaro Bokuto was running. This natural athletic ability continued to blossom as he entered primary school, coming first in every event that he tried. At first it was fun, coming first had it perks, people knew you and you _did_ beat everyone—making you the best—but afterwards it got boring, very predictive, ordinary. It wasn't fun being the best when you put no efforts into it.

All the sports he had tried—soccer, basketball, tennis, baseball, badminton, and track—had some kind of issue with them. Basketball was too easy; soccer was fun but the bugs—Bokuto was very scared of bugs—were not. Tennis had weird shorts—the boy had a knack for ugly t-shirt, but not shorts, ugly shorts were too much. Baseball required one to practice in the long, hot summer days, where again there were bugs. Badminton had more girls playing, and because he was at the age where the popular belief was that other gender had cooties, he did not want to play and get them. And track just had a really mean sensei.

There also wasn't anyone at his school that challenged him. If he had met someone with his caliber in soccer, basketball, tennis, or any other sport he tried, he would have continued them because at least then he could have some competition. But at his elementary school there was no one.

Then one day he met Tetsuro Kuroo, and for the first time in his short life he felt threatened. However, it wasn't an aversive feeling—quite the contrary, it felt appetitive, _very_ appetitive.

Kuroo was the son of one of his father's colleague from work, and lived close by—not close enough to be neighbours, but close enough to be considered walking distance. Despite this close distance, Bokuto never saw him, or if he did never noticed him. Until one day, his father had taken him to Wcdonald's, for some father-son bonding time. When they were in line, his dad notice of his co-worker waiting at the counter for his meal and his son's, who at the moment was looking around the place, bored.

"Oi, Kuroo-san. What a surprise!" His father called out.

Kuroo's dad turned out, surprise filling his narrow eyes. When he registered who had called him he smiled, and replied,

"Hello Bokuto-san!" Noticing his co-worker's son curiously gazing up at him, he smiled down to him, and then added,

"I see you're here with your son too—he paused to push his son forward—why don't we all eat together?"

"Sounds good to me," Bokuto's dad replied. When they had received their food, and sat down at a table, the boys, who were rather tall for their age, started a staring contest. Kuroo was staring at Bokuto because Bokuto reminded him of something, and it was driving him crazy not knowing what it was.

Kuroo categorized people. He first observed them, and then put them away in neat categories in his mind. It annoyed him when he couldn't fit people into categories, it made the world more unpredictable.

Bokuto was staring back, well because, Kuroo was staring at him and he didn't know what to do so he stared back—hoping he had the same cool glare Kuroo had. Their dads were completely oblivious to the show down their sons were having. Bokuto's stomach growled, making him avert his gaze and letting Kuroo be the victor. Bokuto forget about Kuroo for a bit and began munching on his chicken nuggets excitedly, the raven haired boy watched in amazement at first. The speed he was inhaling the nuggets with was very amazing, almost inhumane, but then Kuroo's amazement turned into anger when he realized that Bokuto had begun to eat _his_ nuggets too.

"HEY, those are my NUGGETS!" Kuroo angrily protested. The dads remained oblivious, laughing about some obscure thing.

"SORQWOOLDLw," Bokuto replied, stolen nuggets still in his mouth making his speech intangible.

Kuroo sweat dropped. He grabbed his box of nugget back, and for safe measures moved his French fry holder back as well. Bokuto didn't apologize, and instead started on his fries. Potatoes were good, but meat was the preferred choice of meal for the boy.

"How old are you?" Kuroo asked, anger replaced with reinstated astonishment at the boy's speed of mastication.

Bokuto stopped chewing, swallowed, and then replied happily,

"I'm going to be 10 in September!". His birthday was a week away, his mother would be barbequing meat for him. He licked his lips in anticipation, he couldn't wait for his birthday. Kuroo waited for Bokuto to ask him how old he was, but Bokuto went back to munching on his fries.

"I guess your two months older than me—though you don't act like it!" Kuroo stated, slightly annoyed that fries were more interesting than him.

"HEYy, what's that supposed to mean?" Bokuto placed down the remnants of his fries, and angrily stared at Kuroo. Was this guy making fun of him?

Kuroo swiftly put his hands up and said,

"Don't mind, don't mind—hey do you play any sports?" He wasn't interested with fighting the boy, and needed to change topics before it turned into one. Bokuto's facial expressions softened, completely forgetting the slight insult.

"Hmm…I like being active…but I'm too good at everything I try, so nope! You?"

Kuroo cocked his head to side, this boy was really full of himself.

"Every sport you try? So have you tried volleyball?"

"Volleyball? Is that the one with that weird shape ball that you have to kick and yell, 'Hut, Hut'?"

Kuroo sweat dropped some more.

"Uh, no, that's football. Volleyball is played with a spherical ball, and you need six people on the court. There's a libero—but he's not always on the court he rotates on and off, then there are wing spikers, you need a lot of power to be one. There are also middle blockers, which is what I play."

Bokuto nodded his head, making Kuroo think he understood what he said, but then he spoke, making Kuroo realize that he didn't,

"So the wing spiker is not always on the court, they rotate on and off? And you play the position of a libero? But isn't that for soccer, like the people who play center back? I thought you played volleyball?"

Kuroo was stunned for a few seconds because he got everything backwards. Though he had to hand it to Bokuto for knowing what a center back was.

"How about we go play volleyball after this? I practice at this empty ground behind my house, it has a lot of space for me to put my net." It was probably better to show him what volleyball was rather than explain it to him. Bokuto thought it over for a few seconds,

"Hmm I don't know, it'll probably be too easy,"

Kuroo gave a defiant smirk,

"Are you scared?"

"HUH, me, scared? Okay, lets go!" Bokuto was a prideful boy, and so, never backed out of anything that would show otherwise.

"I won't go easy on you," Kuroo said coolly. He drank some of his cola, watching Bokuto get riled up.

"I _should_ be saying that! Volleyball, mollyball, I'm great at anything because I'm _the_ best!" Bokuto claimed, jumping out of his seat, pointing his thumb to his chest. His father looked over exasperatingly,

"Kotaro, sit down."

"Yes dad," Bokuto said, sitting down, his cheeks slighting stained pink, but his eyes remained focused and eager.

Kuroo only smirked harder to this, sort of resembling a hyena. He liked the energy this boy had, and though he still couldn't pin point what or who this boy resembled, he decided he liked this oddball. Most people didn't say what they meant and didn't mean what they said—this boy seemed to say whatever was on his mind. His innermost thoughts were his outermost ones.

"So, do you normally practice by yourself?" Bokuto questioned, eyeing the remaining fries in Kuroo's plate. Kuroo brought his plate closer to him, at this point the plate was at the edge of the table. If he wasn't such a careful person, he would have easily knocked his plate over.

"No, I force my friend Kenma to practice with me but he's visiting his grandma at the moment." Bokuto tried to surreptitiously sneak some of Kuroo's fries, but Kuroo batted his hand away.

"Is Kenma our age? Is he athletic?" Bokuto said, retrieving his hand, magnificent pout on his face.

"He's a year younger than us, and I wouldn't call him athletic—but he's very smart, and strategic."

"What does strategic mean?"

"Uhh, it's an adjective used to describe someone that's really good at planning." Kuroo internally prayed that Bokuto knew what adjective meant, he didn't want to be for him.

But Bokuto didn't pester him farther, instead he very obviously tried to sneak some more of Kuroo's fires. Kuroo sweat dropped.

"Are you an idiot? I can clearly see you trying to steal my fries!"

"NANI?!" Bokuto cried, he thought he had been ultra secretive this time.

X

After both boys had finished their meals, well after Kuroo had finished his meal—because Bokuto was long done before him—Bokuto went over to Kuroo's place. Kuroo had ran into his house quickly, excited to finally do the thing he loved most, and almost immediately reappeared with a large, black shoulder bag and a ball.

"This is a volleyball," Kuroo said as he presented Bokuto his prized possession. They were currently walking behind his house to the open space Kuroo had mentioned earlier. Bokuto eyed the ball curiously, large, topaz eyes scanning the ball through and through. It had repeating vertical lines, coloured yellow, white and blue, in different orientations. It looked like nothing like that funny shaped ball he had mistaken it for before.

On the ball there were bold, black letters that read _Mikasa_.

"Whose Mikasa? And why do you have her ball?" Bokuto questioned.

"It's the name of the company idiot. Mikasa is my favorite sport franchise."

"OHhhh, makes sense," Bokuto said, nodding his head.

Kuroo unzipped the large bag, and took out two poles and placed them on the ground and then took out the net.

"This is the net we are going to be playing on, and this—pointing to the poles—are what hold the net, come help me set it up,"

Bokuto obeyed, scanning everything and wondering what was so good about a sport that was played with something that resembled a fish net. He was handed one of the poles by Kuroo and was instructed to go put it in the far off hole at the side—which he did—and when looked back Kuroo had placed the other pole in it's respective hole. He then trailed Kuroo back to where the net was and helped him set that up too. When they were done the set up, Kuroo grabbed his volleyball.

"eh toh, let's see…" Kuroo said pensively, he wondered how to start describing this wonderful sport. From the conversation the boys had earlier, he didn't think Bokuto could comprehend difficult rules right off the bat.

"Hmmmm…" Kuroo tried again, tossing the ball up in the air. When the ball came back he pushed it back in the air with his fingers. He could feel the other boy get impatient.

"Okay, like earlier mentioned…in an official match there's six people on a team. The goal is to get this—he pointed at the ball, which he was now holding again—across the net and on the other team's floor."

He threw the ball up in the air, differently than what he had been doing so far, and then jumped, right hand out. He slapped the ball hard. It sailed smoothly to the other side of the net, and landed with a loud, _thud_.

"That's called a spike." He said grinning.

"Ohhh," Bokuto mused, running to the other side. He picked up the ball, and perfectly mimicked what Kuroo had done seconds earlier. The ball didn't fly as smoothly and had a much lower projectile as it flew—as it almost hit the net. But when it hit the ground, it hit it with a much louder thud than Kuroo's had made.

Kuroo watched in amazement, the boy wasn't joking when said he was naturally athletic. Bokuto definitely had a lot of power.

"HEY, HEY, HEY! It went over! I told you I was the best!" Bokuto yelled excitedly.

"Not going to lie, that was really good—especially since it was your first time…but it almost hit the net, which isn't good. If it had actually hit the net in an actual game the point wouldn't count."

"Let me try again!" Bokuto shouted in anguish, he wanted to prove that he could hit the ball as smoothly as Kuroo. Kuroo passed the ball back to him, instructing him to,

"Hit it higher,"

Bokuto listened to him. But even though he hit higher, the ball this time didn't even make it over the net. It went with up with a _whoosh_ , but came right down where Bokuto had hit it.

Frustrated, he tried again, this time it went over the net, but it touched it.

"UGH," He yelled out, confused on why his ball wasn't going the way he wanted it to go.

"Don't mind, don't mind!" Kuroo yelled over, hoping to smooth some of the other boy's frustration. Seeing Bokuto remain fazed, Kuroo picked up the volleyball and threw it over, giving him another chance to try.

"Stay calm," he instructed Bokuto when the ball reached him.

Bokuto inhaled deeply, and then threw the ball like he had done earlier, jumping up immediately after. He studied the ball carefully—when he reflected about this moment later, he realized this is what made him pursue volleyball initially. The whole exchanged happened in seconds, but to him it felt like everything, except for the ball had frozen.

He saw over the net, splotchy brown ground with spots of dry grass dispersed all over. He brought his right hand slowly to the ball, and hit with all he had. He watched in amazement as the ball glided swiftly over the net, no where near touching it, and landed on the ground with a defiant smack that broke the spell that the exchange had on him and brought him back to reality.

 _An owl_. That's what Bokuto had reminded him of earlier.

Kuroo watched in amazement, awe, and a very, very, almost negligible amount of jealousy. Bokuto was exactly like the owl he had saw on the nature channel—he wasn't an environmental enthusiast, but there hadn't been any volleyball playing on television, and he did like to be well rounded and well informed. The owl had these gigantic eyes that were some colour between brown and yellow, with some specks of green. The eyes got even larger when the owl had narrowed down it's prey. Just like how Bokuto's eyes had been when he jumped. Similarly, Bokuto had hit the ball with the same intensity and swiftness of the owl when it had dived after the field mouse it had spotted.

However, the owl had secured his prey—reached its end goal, looking at where the ball landed, Bokuto was very novice to this.

"HEY, HEY, HE—" Bokuto began to celebrate again, but was immediately shot down by Kuroo.

"That would be out of bonds," He pointed to where the ball had landed, outside of an almost faded line drawn into the ground. Bokuto looked around the ground in confusion, there were lines boxing in each side.

"But it's not your fault, I forgot to mention earlier that the ball had to land within the lines,"

"YeAh, okay, it definitely wasn't _my_ mistake!" Bokuto exclaimed, happy his internal representation of himself as perfect, best-in-everything-kind guy was still tact.

"Now you know, so if it falls outside of the line, it will be your mistake," Kuroo replied, smirk very evident on his lips. Bokuto stuck his tongue out at him,

"LIKE I'll make it again!"

Finally, he found someone that challenged him.

X

"So, basically I joined my middle school's volleyball team because Kuroo and I had this rivalry when we were kids and wanted to play with each other in an official match. I didn't get to play Kuroo's team in middle school because I went to a power house school and he didn't, and so his team always got defeated before they faced mine." Bokuto stopped to drink some water from a bottle he had fished out somewhere between the time he talked about stealing Kuroo's fries and setting up the net.

"I continued playing volleyball in high school because I wanted to—still want to—have a chance to play and _destroy_ him" Bokuto resumed, capping his water bottle.

"Um, so basically, you've always been talented at sports but the ones you had tried were boring to you and no one at your elementary school was on par with your skill. But then you met Kuroo who was athletic, and he introduced you to volleyball, and you guys become rivals…So that's why you started to play volleyball?" Atsuki said, rephrasing his lengthy story in a few sentences.

"Well, yeah. Huh…I could have just said that instead of telling you that story?" He mused to himself. Thank God for her good self control, or else, she would have told him that she liked his story.

"But why come to Fukurodani? If all you wanted to do was play Kuroo in a match, wouldn't any other decent school do? This school's volleyball program is top tier, I don't get why you'd chose to come here if you didn't really like the sport, or thought it was fun?"

"Like you said, Fukurodani is the best—

Atsuki rolled her eyes, she said _one_ of the best

—and because I'm the greatest, I chose this school. Plus, there's this _amazing_ Korean BBQ place nearby, I should take you sometime!"

"Did BBQ meat really influence such an important decision?"

Atsuki froze. _Wait_. Did he just ask her out? She felt her cheeks getting pink, again. _What. The. Hell._

"Oshiro-san? Your phone's buzzing." Snapping out of her daze, Atsuki robotically turned off her timer, refusing to make eye contact with him.

"Okay, story time is over, let get back to business," she tried her best to make her voice seem monotone, and uninterested, but the heat from her cheeks would not dissipate.

"Ahh, can we have five more minutes?"

"Nope," her voice slightly wavered. Why was she acting so _stupid?_

"Uh, Oshiro-san are you okay? Your cheeks look kind of red…"

"I-I-It's getting kind of hot? Hahah,"

Lightening flashed outside the window, and angry water started pouring down heavily. Bokuto looked outside, and then back at Atsuki.

"It looks kind of cold to me,"

Atsuki sweatdropped, out of all the times for it to rain, it had to be now?

"UM, LET's get back to work!"

X

 **A/N:** _This should have been up two Friday's ago :c_

 _Anyways, I think I may have been a little (a lot) OC-ish on lil Kuroo & Bokuto, but I wanted to try and write about their first meeting. I know in the manga (and I'm sure the anime mentioned it) Bokuto told Tsuki he only recently started liking VBALL, so I got really curious on why he played it for so long when he didn't like it before._

 _Also the opening song had nothing to do with this chapter but I LOVE Stromae :D_


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